R. B. McCallum

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Ronald Buchanan McCallum (28 August 1898 in

Inklings. McCallum helped popularize the term psephology (statistical analysis of elections).[1]

Early life and education

The fourth and youngest son of Andrew Fisher McCallum, a master dyer, and his wife, Catherine Buchanan Gibson, he was educated at

First World War, he served for two years between 1917 and 1919 as a member of the Labour Corps of the British Expeditionary Force in France
.

Returning to Britain, he obtained a place at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read history and took his degree with first class honours in 1922.[2]

Academic career

After spending a year at

Rhodes Scholar and future American Senator J. William Fulbright
. Elected to several college offices over the next thirty years, he became Master of Pembroke College in 1955.

He was the first non-clerical head of the College since 1714. In addition, he held university offices, including serving as Senior

Pro-Vice Chancellor in 1961 as well as the university member of the Oxford City Council, 1958-1967.[2] McCallum served as editor of The Oxford Magazine for three terms, 1933, 1967, and 1972.[3]

His 1944 work, Public Opinion and the Last Peace, is an analysis of the relationship between public opinion and policy in regards to the making of the Treaty of Versailles and its revision during the Interwar years.[4] McCallum defended David Lloyd George against those who had attacked him for his conduct during the 1918 election and for his policies at the Paris Peace Conference.[4] He also defended the Versailles Treaty against the criticism of John Maynard Keynes in The Economic Consequences of the Peace.[5] Max Beloff called Public Opinion and the Last Peace "scholarly and penetrating", adding that it was "one of the most important, as it is certainly one of the most brilliant and courageous, contributions to the literature of the subject".[4]

As Master of Pembroke, he oversaw a transformation of the college that reflected the changes established by the

Inklings, an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford and attended by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, which met for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949.[7]

McCallum is widely remembered for his work as a historian and analyst of British public opinion. The professor coined the word psephology to describe the academic study of elections, but in this retained his focus as a historian and did not venture into sociological approaches.[2]

Books

  • Asquith (biography, 1936). Great Lives Series.
  • England and France, 1939-1943 (1944). online
  • Public Opinion and the Last Peace (1944).
  • The British General Election of 1945 (1947). With Alison Readman.
  • The Liberal Party from Earl Grey to Asquith (1963). Men and Ideas Series.

References

  1. ISBN 9781933116440
    , retrieved 10 February 2023
  2. ^
    Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-87338-890-0
    .
  4. ^ a b c Max Beloff, 'Reviewed Work: Public Opinion and the Last Peace by R. B. McCallum', International Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr., 1945), pp. 259-260.
  5. ^ David Bratman, "R. B. McCallum: The Master Inkling", Mythlore, Vol. 23, No. 3 (89) (Summer 2001), p. 38.
  6. ^ "Obituary" (PDF). The Abingdonian.
  7. Kilby & Mead 1982
    , p. 230.

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Master of Pembroke College, Oxford

1955 to 1967 		Succeeded by
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